The humble junior 189-pounder beat South Plainfield senior Mike Wagner 9-4 to put himself in position to join Delbarton legend Mike Grey next year as a four-time state champ. He’s Bound Brook’s 17th state champion.

The weekend wasn’t all a stroll on the boardwalk for the wrestler Perth Amboy coach Mike Giordano expects to be “”a living legend in the state of New Jersey wrestling.”

The budding legend left his wrestling shoes at home Friday, didn’t eat right and escaped with a 5-4 win over Middletown North’s Brandon Vorrius. With food in his stomach, he rebounded with strong performances in Saturday’s quarterfinals and semifinals.

“”The beginning was a little rough, the first match, but once I got some food in me it was pretty much smooth sailing,” Campolattano said.

Smooth sailing outside of a tooth he lost early in the final and a rugged opponent in Wagner. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but the bout was stopped three times for blood.

“”(The tooth) came right out of my mouth ‘pow,”’ said Campolattano, who beat Wagner 3-0 in a late-season dual meet. “”And my bottom lip is going to need some stitches.”

The bout was scoreless after the first period, but Campolattano said he felt comfortable with it. Wagner chose defense to start the second period and Campolattano was hit with a caution. Wagner scored first with an escape.

Campolattano earned his first takedown with less than 20 seconds remaining by using a front headlock to spin behind. Campolattano escaped to make it 3-1 in the third, then
took Wagner down for a 5-1 lead. He let Wagner up, then took him down again, 7-2. A final takedown was sandwiched by two Wagner escapes.

“”I was having trouble getting past his defense; he stayed in a low, good stance the whole match,” Campolattano said. “”I got a chance to fire off one of those double at the end and I kept driving through.”

South Plainfield coach Kevin McCann thought that the blood time hurt Wagner (40-2), believing Wagner had an edge in endurance. Wagner was fourth at 171 last year.

“”I think that kind of hurt us because what we were looking at from the other matches (Campolattano wrestled), it seemed like we might be able to take advantage of our conditioning and we didn’t get an opportunity to take advantage of that,” McCann
said.

“It didn’t help us with the breaks. But it is what it is. Camp is a great wrestler. So is Mike. Camp was better today.”

“”I was really looking to beat that kid,” said Wagner, who finished 40-2 and 90-12 for his career, “” but things didn’t go my way. I put so much work into it.”

Last year, Campolattano celebrated by mimicking a bow and arrow. This year he cupped his ear to the crowd as the crowd revelled with him, prompting more cheers.

“”It feels great. I mean, I love being a crowd favorite,” said Campolattano, 131-1 for his career and 42-1 for the season. “”I come out here and perform and put on a show for everbody.I love coming out to perform and performing in front of the crowd. I love the atmosphere and wrestling in front of 10,000 people or how many there were here. It’s the best feeling ever.”

What will it take for him to have the same feeling a year from now? Campolattano said he will face the toughest off-season of training if he’s to get ther.

“”Hopefully I’ll put in more work than I ever have,” he said.

About Harry Frezza

Harry Frezza is a proud 1974 graduate of Bound Brook High School. He graduated from Rowan University. The Somerset County native is in his 35th year at the Courier News. He's the father of three children -- Thomas, 24, Nicole, 22 and Jamie Janeen 20. All are graduates of Nazareth Area High School (Pa.) home of the Blue Eagles.